Convicted killer Sampson alleging jury misconduct

Gary Lee Sampson, a former Abington man awaiting execution for two brutal Massachusetts murders during a six-day killing spree in 2001, is claiming jury misconduct in his 2003 death penalty trial. And now a federal judge has released documents in connection with allegations by Sampson that three jurors who sentenced him to death lied on questionnaires they filled out in preparation for his federal court trial.

A former Abington man awaiting execution for two brutal Massachusetts murders during a six-day killing spree in 2001 is claiming jury misconduct in his 2003 death penalty trial.

And now a federal judge has released documents in connection with allegations by Gary Lee Sampson that three jurors who sentenced him to death lied on questionnaires they filled out in preparation for his federal court trial.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf is weighing arguments concerning a possible new trial for Sampson, who pleaded guilty to the 2001 murders of Jonathan Rizzo of Kingston and former Quncy resident Philip McCloskey, hoping to get a life sentence.

Federal prosecutors went ahead with the death-penalty phase of the case, however.

One prospective juror acknowledged that she did not reveal that her daughter once worked for the police department in Sanibel, Fla., and that her daughter went to prison on a drug charge in 1998.

Another did not disclose that her boyfriend was once a university police officer, and a third juror did not reveal that he had been prosecuted for driving to endanger and driving without a license, according to transcripts of the interviews with the judge.

Sampson’s attorney, William McDaniels, said in court papers that lawyers were entitled to know before the trial whether any of the jurors had a potential bias concerning law enforcement.

The incorrect information on the questionnaires may have resulted from misunderstandings by the jurors or embarrassment over things that had happened in the past, prosecutors said. For example, the woman whose daughter had been in prison told the judge she was ashamed of what had happened and did not want to acknowledge it.

Prosecutors stated that even if the jurors did make false statements, the jury’s decision in the first-ever federal death-penalty case in Massachusetts would not have been affected. Massachusetts law does not contain a death-penalty provision.

Wolf has not ruled on whether Sampson is entitled to a new tri al.

Sampson, an inmate at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., pleaded guilty to carjacking and killing Rizzo, a 19-year-old college student from Kingston, and McLoskey, 69, of Taunton, in July 2001. Sampson admitted that he forced both men to drive to secluded spots, assured them that he only wanted to steal their cars, then stabbed them repeatedly and slit their throats.

Sampson then fled to New Hampshire, broke into a house in Meredith and strangled Robert Whitney, 58. He received a life sentence for that killing.